Islamabad/Karachi  - Finance Minister Naveed Qamar told Pakistan's newly elected parliament on Wednesday that the government was freezing the defence budget in a move designed to make defence spending transparent.

Qamar, releasing the fiscal 2008-2009 budget in the National Assembly, said defence expenditure would remain unchanged but all future decisions would be taken after parliamentary debate.

Analysts, however, said the freeze marked a reduction of 400 million dollars, from 4.5 billion dollars to around 4.1 billion dollars due to a 14 per cent devaluation of the Pakistani rupee against the dollar.

Islamic militancy is on the rise in parts of Pakistan, with the military engaged in a bloody and costly war with pro-Taliban militants in the restive northwestern province and nationalist separatists in the mineral-rich southwestern province.

Pakistan's defence budget is normally kept under wraps on the argument that doing otherwise would reveal too much about the military's preparations against traditional nuclear armed rival India. (dpa)